Assignment 3.2 Critical decisions

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Critical decisions

Some critical decisions and problems that I had to solve relating to sound, photography and presenting the story are summarised below:

Sound
  • The interview recording went for just over 13 minutes and I saw it as a challenge to cut it down to under 2 minutes!
  • To do this I had to decide what the aim of my story was going to be. I saw the choice of having it as more of an educational tool or more of a life story, and decided to use the life story theme because of the nature of the answers that were given during the interview.
  • I decided to use an opening sound effect of the combination of an electric saw and banging hammer. I needed to make sure the the sound level wasn't too high and off putting so I faded it in and out as the speaking started.

Photography
  • When I decided on creating a digital story about my Dad I made the decision to take my own photographs, as the ones that my family already had were not the quality photographs that I was aiming to use. So i needed to take the time to go to Kangaroo Island to get an illustration of my story.
  • I also decided to use some photographs that had been taken quite a few years ago in Queensland so that they could enhance the words spoken about the building my Dad did in Queensland.
  • I took a wide range of photographs so that I would be left with lots of choices when putting my story together digitally, because I knew that I wouldn't be able to take any more photographs when I returned from Kangaroo Island.


Presenting the story
  • I decided to use a Macintosh and it's software to produce my digital story, because in the past I have used Windows based computers and have not had same results that I have achieved with using a Macintosh.
  • There are endless ways to present digital stories, I decided to keep it simple with minimum effects. I think that it looks more professional if you stick to one or two transition effectsw rather than changing the transition for each photograph.
  • I used a simple opening title accompanied with sound effects that I recorded myself and believe it enhanced the story by giving a feel for building through the sounds of hammers and electric saws.